June 29, 2004

Amateur Movie Review- Napoleon Dynamite

Pedro offers you his protection...

As I mentioned previously, the Mrs. Frinklin and I went to see Napoleon Dynamite this weekend. This is an exceptionally odd little movie following Napoleon, his sexually ambiguous older brother Kip and their Uncle Rico, who peaked in 1982, and is so desperate to return there he’ll do anything, including buy a time machine off the Internet. Napoleon, yes that is his real name, is in high school in a very small, very backward little town in Idaho. This is not the most coherent movie; it just rather meanders around Napoleon, his school year and the geeky things he does. And Goodness is he geeky. Napoleon and his friends Debbie and Pedro might be the most socially inept teenagers ever seen on screen. This movie is painful to watch at times, and the moviegoer will spend the entire time in a state of permanent cringe.

Napoleon Dynamite is definitely worth seeing though. It can be very funny. I dare anyone to see Napoleon explain how he never gets any girls due his lack of nun-chuck skills or Pedro’s brilliant idea of asking the prettiest girl in school to the big dance via a cake and not laugh. It is inherently sunny as well, wrapping up in an ending worthy of vintage John Hughes. This movie has all the earmarks of a cult hit: unknown cast, bizarre sense of humor, and endlessly repeatable lines. Judging by the reaction at Bob’s Hogs and Wiener Pigs, it already is, as the Mrs. Frinklin’s co-workers constantly wear their “Vote for Pedro” t-shirts.

I want one too.

Posted by Frinklin at June 29, 2004 06:27 PM
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